outwardly

When the London Olympic Committee (LOCOG) announced the mascot for the 2012 Summer Olympics my first reaction was what are they? and was this a joke? I mean as if the schizophrenic psychodelic logo wasn’t bad enough.

First thing was I didn’t know what to make of these two creatures, they look like some alien cyclops with claws wearing some metallic sterile out-of-the-world space suits. I later found out their names were Wenlock and Mandeville.

Supposely Wenlock and Mandeville were created from left over bits of melted steel use to create the stadium and brought to life by a rainbow, you can view the short movie of their creation here.

Not sure how kids will take into these characters, as in the past Olympic mascots tend to be cute cartoon animal-like such as the ones in the Vancouver (for which I never really liked personally, however, they were popular), the Beijing and Moscow Olympics. But then again when I think of the Teletubbies (which totally freaks me out) and see how children loves them and watches them religiously, I figure, maybe children might love Wenlock and Mandeville as well.

From looking at the 2012 logo and the mascots I figure the LOCOG wanted to look for a fresh post-modern design, Futurism in style. Maybe the fact that we are so use to believing that the mascots should be something that is a recognizable earth-like cartoon character that when something new and out of the box idea comes up that we tend to not to associate with the Olympics then we begin to think of it negatively. I mean I can see both Wenlock and Mandeville as Disney/Pixar 3D movie characters and when I think of them this way, I feel, yeah, I would go and watch that movie.

Therefore, even if I still don’t really like these characters as the 2012 mascot right now, I think in time, I might learn to see them differently.

In today’s constant changing society its getting harder and harder for designers to make ends meat. What do freelancers have to do or should look forward to when becoming a freelancer?

Networking remains a very important aspects for freelance designers to gain new clients. However the method of networking has change with technologies such as Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, delicious, blogger, myspace, etc… people are networking using these viral marketing channels. But word of mouth still remains the best networking tool, however, as anyone can tell you, while word of mouth is the best, it is really difficult to get.

Be multidisciplinary! Its no longer safe to say you only do print or web. Many clients and companies want a one stop design shop, someone they can go to do their logo, business card, letterhead, website, email campaign, etc…

Be original. Its tough out there to find a client, there are many other designers competing for the same client and job. One needs to stand out, maybe have a special skill that many other designers don’t have such as photography or event management.

Never undersell yourself. Many designers starting out tend to undersell their skills and abilities. Remember as a freelancer you also need to charge for overhead cost such as the electricity, applications, etc… Understand that when a designer undersold him/herself, they are also underselling the industry.

Have an online web site. Either hosting it in your own server or using a internet provider. Its actually quite cheap to host a web site from an internet provider and you can most likely get something like $10/month that contain more than enough space and function for your site. The entire site should be design by you (still don’t understand why there are designers out there who claims to be designers, that have web sites design by other designers??) and it should showcase your portfolio of work and diversity. Don’t be shy with your portfolio either… show them around to other people – friends, family, other designers, etc… who can provide you with excellent feedback of improvement as well as be an invaluable word-of-mouth.

Business plan. I know most freelancers don’t like to think of this, but yes, you do need a business plan that focuses on marketing. While you might not have a lot of money to invest in this, be creative. Find creative and inexpensive (free if possible) ways to promote your business. This might mean doing some pro bono works in the beginning for non-profit organizations or going to sites like Craiglist applying for some contract works that are posted there (just be a little careful on these sites, as some post are not real jobs as much as they phishing for email addresses and resumes).

As well think about your business how are you going to register it? Setting up your invoice and time tracking spreadsheets, contracts, receipts, etc… Yes, all this can be quite overwhelming but in the long run it will help you a lot and they are all necessary if you are starting your own business.

Have some cash reserved. Generally in the beginning of a freelancer, money can be a bit tight as you are just starting out and not have much promotion yet – therefore not much jobs. It is good to have a good amount of cash saved up that can help you financially in the beginning when things are slow in the first few months.

Don’t forget the local market. Eventhough, as a designer you should be able to work for various clients all over the world (assuming that both parties are able to communicate together). You should never ignore local businesses. I personally prefer to work for local clients, to me, meeting and talking with someone face to face its very important. I also find that working with a local client, I can see the final print pieces to make sure that everything is perfect, while if I work with a client in another city, often times, I don’t get to see the actual printed piece to verify that the colours are the right pantones, etc..

If anyone have any other suggestions, please feel free to share your ideas or comments in this blog.

When computers began to be a technology that would be a general usage in business many professionals thought we were moving into a paperless society, the we would not be using so much paper anymore. That was very wrong! It seems people are using more paper with the advent of computer than ever. People would just receive a file and print it to read, rather than reading from the screen.

This is an issue because we are destroying our forest.

1. Converting trees into paper requires large amounts of water, energy, and chemicals and produces a large amount of air and water pollution.
2. The pulp and paper industry is the fifth largest consumer of energy, accounting for 4 percent of all the world’s energy use.
3. The pulp and paper industry uses more water to produce a ton of product than any other industry.
4. Consumers play a pivotal role in reshaping the future of the pulp and paper industry.
5. 40 percent of office paper still ends up in overburdened landfills.
6. Expanding the reuse of paper reduces the pressure to cut more trees, reduces demand on over burdened waste disposal systems and cuts energy use and pollution. One ton of recycled paper produces one ton of new paper, which is far more efficient than using virgin wood fiber.

What are our other options?

One option is using a tree-less method of producing paper – hemp paper. Hemp was use to make paper in the past. In fact, the first paper ever made (China 150 AD) was made using hemp fibres and up until 1883, most papers were made using hemp fibres.

Making papers from trees is inefficient because trees only contain about 30% cellulose, the other 70% of the tree requires toxic chemicals to be remove until the cellulose can be form into paper. The higher the cellulose content, the better it will be to produce paper. Hemp contains 85% cellulose.

Hemp papers are stronger and lasts much longer than wood paper, which could be very valuable for people who want to keep records aside from on computers.

Hemp paper does not yellow, crack, or deteriorate like tree paper does. The acids, which are used to make paper from eat away at the pulp and cause it to turn yellow and fall apart. Because of this publishers, libraries, and archives have to order specially processed acid free paper (which are even more toxins added to the production).

Hemp paper also does not require any bleaching, and so does not poison the water with dioxins or chlorine like tree paper mills do. The chemicals involved in making hemp paper are much less toxic.
Making paper from hemp would also eliminate erosion due to logging, reduces topsoil loss, and water pollution caused by soil runoff.

One acre of hemp can produce as much paper as 4 to 10 acres of trees over a 20-year cycle, but hemp stalks only take four months to mature, whereas trees take 20 to 80 years. Earth use to have a lot of forest where humans could easily cut down trees to produce pulp and paper, however, at the rate we are depleting our forest we would have no more trees within the next 60 years, we definitely need to think about alternatives. Our insatiable need for pulp and paper will not end and we need a more environmentally sound alternative, reintroducing ourselves to hemp might be a very sound option.

Below is a list of companies that sells tree-less papers:
Rawganique.com

Ecopaper.com

Ecosource Paper Inc

1. Use recycled and (Forest Stewardship Council) FSC approved paper stocks.

2. Try to decrease the use of colour treated paper or paper that has been coated with a chemical to give it a high gloss finishing. Instead use copy paper that are 100% post-consumer waste and processed chlorine-free.

3. Avoid purchasing very bright white paper as they maybe treated with bleach and other chemicals to make them so bright and white.

4. Instead of printing out concepts and designs for review and approval, send a PDF version to view.

5. Maximize as much individual design into a sheet as possible so there would be less wasted paper left behind after cutting.

6. Avoid using heavy ink coverage such as having a white word over a 100% Black background, which uses more resources and produce more waste.

7. Using a lower weight paper stock. Heavy weight stocks such as 80lbs or greater has more fibers per sheet than those of lowers ones such as 24lbs. A lower paper weight uses less resources to produce.

8. Print on both sides of the paper whenever possible to reduce waste.

9. Make the most of your white space and try to fit as much into a page as possible. Although, as a designer myself, I understand that there are times when a design calls for lots of white space on a page.

10. Try not to bleed your pages. In order to bleed a 8.5×11 sheet of paper, it must need to be printed on a larger sheet (eg: 9×12) and then cut to an 8.5×11 size causing waste.

11. Stay on top with new trends and techniques in printing. Meet up with print suppliers and ask them to tell you of new innovations that they are doing to help with the environment.

12. Use vegetable oil-base ink rather than mineral-based ink. Vegetable based ink will reduce the amount of pollution as well as they dry faster and produce an excellent image quality. Look for a supplier that uses vegetable based ink, even though generally they are about 8-10% higher.

13. Reduce your shipping impact on the environment: Use locally produced paper and printers close to the end delivery location.

14. Purchase paper in bulks to decrease the air pollution of having unnecessary deliveries to cut down on the shipping impact.

15. Reduce the amount of direct mailers send to customers. Give customers an option if they would like coupons, information, newsletters, etc… to be send to their email address instead.

16. Recycle: Designers can use up a lot of paper when they are printing, please practice recycling.

17. Reuse: If a design can be reuse again do so. Example can be a banner or signage. If it can be made generic and be used again it would greatly reduce cost and help the environment.

18. Stop laminating: Laminating is expensive and bad for the environment, if a design piece need to be sturdy and professional looking, try using a heavy high quality paper stock rather than laminating.

19. Return your empty toner and ink cartridges, waste bottle container, drums, etc… Talk to your printer supplier on the options to do this.

20. Please consider the environment when you print, whether it be an email, document, etc… Is it necessary to print the file or can it be read on the screen.

21. On your signature of your email after your name and contact information add in the text “please consider the environment before printing this email”, this will encourage the reader to think twice, whether its necessary to print the email.

22. MAC users can download the Sustainable Graphic Design widget, which delivers basic information about the environmental impacts that design methods and techniques have.

23. Avoid printing on vinyls because they are printed on solvent-based inks that are high in VOCs (volatile organic compounds) which are highly toxic. However there are better and better eco-friendly alternatives such as the HP Designjet L25500 and the DesignJet L65500 printer which uses non-toxic water-based ink.

24. And lastly, spread the word out to other designers, clients, employers, friends, suppliers and vendors. We can all make a difference one step at a time.

More information on how to become a “green” designer:

AIGA Centre for Sustainable Design
Design Can Change
Renourish

Eco-friendly printers in Vancouver:

Hemlock Printers
Metropolitan Fine Printers
En Masse Media